Videos

In a sport as wild and unpredictable as MMA often is, perhaps it’s fitting that, less than a week after the “biggest card in UFC history” left us feeling cold and mostly underwhelmed, a humble, under-the-radar, and most importantly free card like Fight Night 91 would come along and collectively blow our goddamn socks off. It even finished wrapping up before midnight, if you can believe it!

What Fight Night 91 may have lacked in star power, it more than made up for in just excellent displays of guys and girls punching each other in the face. In the main event of the evening, devastating face-puncher John Lineker took on the similarly hard-hitting Michael McDonald in a bantamweight contest, and the result was right up there with Lineker’s battle against Francisco Rivera in terms of just how much face was punched inside the span of three minutes.

Hey Nation! Your fearless leader here, excited to pass along the news that CagePotato will be teaming up with The Vlader Company to bring you exclusive content from the upcoming MMA documentary, The Hurt Business. Profiling the likes of Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey, George St-Pierre, and Rashad Evans – the documentary focuses on the mindset and struggles (both mentally and physically) that MMA athletes go through and why the violent sport keeps growing at a massive speed.

Check out the official teaser trailer and synopsis for The Hurt Business after the jump, and swing by to CP for more exclusive clips and footage in the coming weeks!

Gather round, Nation! The official press conference for this weekend’s UFC 199 is starting right now. Featuring a pair of title fight rematches — middleweight champion Luke Rockhold vs. Michael Bisping and bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber — and a slew of intriguing undercard bouts, UFC 199 is sure to keep the promotion’s current run of momentum going, so join us after the jump for what will surely be a trash-talk filled evening.

(“So then the officer grabbed me like this and demanded to know which orifice I was hiding the bath salts in and…what were we talking about again?”)

Following a couple high profile, highly-criticizedsignings and the most epic press release of all time (not that we had anything invested in it), Italian promotion Venator FC held its third event over the weekend. It was a night of surprises, to say the least, with perhaps the most surprising thing being that the event didn’t end up being the absolute shitshow that it seemed primed to be.

In the main event of the evening, UFC veteran and contemptible asshole Rousimar Palhares was obliterated inside of a minute by heavy underdog Emil Meek. In a light heavyweight matchup, TUF 3 alum Matt Hamill faced off with Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and met a similarly brief/violent end, and even Cody McKenzie managed to secure his first victory in over two years via his signature guillotine.

But atop the shitshow mountain stood Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who was plucked from a 4 year absence (the majority of which he spent in the back seat of a squad car) to face fellow UFC vet Luke Barnatt in a middleweight title fight. Mayhem’s return seemed doomed from the beginning when he showed up to the scales a whopping 24 pounds overweight, but after being pulled from the fight and rebooked at light heavyweight against Mattia Schiavolin, the stage was finally set for what would surely be a disastrous performance.

Shockingly, however, Miller not only looked halfway decent in the cage, but appears as if he might actually be on the path to redemption.

In case you’re not a 40-something year old man who’s been thoroughly neutered by his wife, you might not know that UFC strawweight Paige VanZant has been absolutely CRUSHING IT during her run on this season’s Dancing With the Stars. Alongside partner Mark Ballas, she’s been one of the only competitors to receive a perfect score this year, and has done so thanks largely in part to her consistently risky yet inspired routines. (Look at me, breaking down dance numbers like I’m Vaslav Nijinsky. What a world.)

Anyways, VanZant was back at it again last night, unleashing a Game of Thrones-inspired Waltz that earned her a near-perfect score of 29 out of 30. Vanzant’s performance was good enough to secure her a place in the season 22 semifinals, where she will compete against a bunch of former athletes and 80′s television actors that we couldn’t identify with a gun to our head for a trophy that probably looks nicer than the TUF glass plaque. With a win, I have no doubts that VanZant will propel MMA to the mainstream, legitimate, universally-beloved sport it was always destined to be.

After the jump: Vanzant’s partner dance with Antonio Brown from earlier in the night. SPOILER: It involves twirling, convulsions, and a rain-soaked finale.

In Poland last weekend, we were treated to another real doozy of an arm break on the HFO 2 Kunlun Elimination 2016 undercard. During a match between two unnamed amateurs, the fellow in the blue-taped gloves above attempted to counter a Harai Goshi throw by placing his arm on the mat. A quick reminder: NEVER, EVER TRY THIS.

So the 23rd season of The Ultimate Fighter premiered on FS1 last night, and though we have long since stopped being what you’d call “regular viewers,” that doesn’t mean we can’t occassionally highlight some of the more memorable/brutal moments from the long-running reality show.

A prime example: The light heavyweight matchup between Khalil “The Warhorse” Rountree vs. Muhammed “Mo Muscle” DeReese, which ended with some of the most horrific (and legal!) soccer kicks you will ever see.

The history of UFC fighters appearing on Dancing With the Stars has been a brief but painful one. Chuck Liddell was the first to break the mold in Season 9, getting axed after the 4th week and finishing in 11th place (out of 16) overall. His old rival Randy Couture was next to appear some ten seasons later, but met a similarly swift end. Big Nog and Denis Kang also appeared in the Brazilian and Korean versions of the show, respectively, but failed to make it past the first few rounds. Who would think that professional fighters would have such notoriously terrible footwork?

Enter UFC strawweight Paige VanZant, who announced earlier this month that she had signed on to join the 22nd season (!) of the hit ABC competition show following her hard-fought loss to Rose Namajunas last year. Given VanZant’s athleticism and background as a former dancer, it seemed as if she would be the first MMA fighter to actually excel on the show, and she’s done nothing short of that thus far.

Last night, VanZant overcame a last-minute injury (of her dancing partner, Mark Ballas) to claim the highest score of the season, a 24, by dancing the tango alongside replacement partner Alan Bersten. Check out the video of her performance above.

After the jump: VanZant’s debut performance from the first episode of the season.

Back in 2014, Chan Sung Jung shocked the MMA world by announcing that he would be leaving the sport behind to fulfill a two-year mandatory military service required in his native South Korea. Although he had spent the majority of the two years prior to that nursing various injuries, it was his final fight in the octagon — a back-and-forth battle with Jose Aldo at UFC 163 — that proved just how much of a terror he would be for 99% of the UFC’s top featherweights.

But mostly, we remember “The Korean Zombie” for the consistently epic brawls he engaged in while under both the WEC and UFC banners. Whether it was in losing efforts like his first fight against Leonard Garcia or in triumphs like his battle with Dustin Poirier, Jung quickly earned a reputation as one of the sport’s most entertaining 145ers.

With his service now coming to a close, sources close to Jung told MMAFighting that the former title challenger is looking to make his return to the cage sometime in late 2016 or early 2017. The Zombie is back, so to ring in the celebration, we’ve gathered as many of his fight videos and highlights as we were legally allowed to. Head after the jump for the full treatment.

Former UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado may be best known for his ability to absorb a punch (and then ten thousand punches after that), but in his victories, he’s shown a decent enough ability to throw one as well.

Having been one of eight fighters cut by the UFC back in December following consecutive losses to Rampage Jackson and Corey Anderson, Maldonado recently decided to return to his old stomping grounds inside the squared circle to see if he still had any spark left in those bungalows he likes to throw around. His first fight back in February played out in nearly perfect fashion, with Maldonado defeating Robson Bambu via first round knockout. Emerging from the fight completely unscathed, the Brazilian slugger was booked against 2-7 jobber Alessandro Bernardo in a quick turnaround match last week, and the results were almost identical.